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PRESENTS FOOtball: news and notes 'Significant Progress' BY GOLD AND BLACK STAFF A fter his debut in the Northern Illinois game, quarterback Danny Etling said he didn't want to repeat mistakes. Now that he's made six starts, half a season, the freshman signalcaller thinks he's done well and is making progress. "I don't think I've made the same mistake twice too many times," Etling said Tuesday, a couple days after Purdue's 20-16 loss to Illinois, the Boilers' ninth straight defeat. "And I feel like I've really improved as the season has gone on and have become more and more comfortable with each opponent." Despite leading Purdue to only to only two touchdowns against the Illini, Etling had his highest-percentage completion game of the season, threw a touchdown and had only one turnover. That coming on the last play of the game. "He's making significant progress, if you watch him," Darrell Hazell said. "He throws it away now. He was very accurate with the ball. There was one read where I thought he should have come to the Tom Campbell crossing route Despite Purdue mustering only two touchdowns against the lowly Illinois early in the defense, most say Danny Etling has made significant progress this season. game. He At times against the Illini, dropped it off to the back, he Etling appeared to look toward should have hit his No. 2 read. His higher-percentage options, rathonly turnover was the last play of er than pushing the ball toward the game where he got hit, so he open receivers down field. is making significant progress." "He's not seeing everything But there's room to grow. he needs to see, but he's getting In his six starts, Etling has better," offensive coordinator completed 54 percent of his pass- John Shoop said. "Every single es for 964 yards (160.7 average), rep he's getting better and he's thrown five interceptions and working his tail off to do it. There's four touchdowns. And in the last some things you're never going six games, Purdue's offense has to learn on a practice field, you're scored 50 points. only going to learn it out there in the game. He's learning a lot of it." The production has been enough for Hazell to continue to believe that Etling is the quarterback of the future. "He's doing a great job for us," Hazell said. But Etling's not happy. The Terre Haute, Ind., native has lost too many games and he'll take that with him to the offseason. "I'll be very motivated after the season, with the way it's gone," he said. "I definitely want to change the script here with the next few years I'm at the helm. I don't want this feeling, this record, the losses, you don't want that any more. "We'll get together this offseason and work hard, but right now I'm focused on Indiana." Jacob McGough—Fresno, Calif. Senior, Mechanical Engineering Jacob was one of 39 Purdue student-athletes honored as Distinguished Scholar Award recipients by the Big Ten in July. In all, four members of the 2013 men's swimming and diving team were named to the list. GoldanDBlack express • volume 24, express 12 • 24